1947 1 ton stake bed

[bwilde86]

i tried searching on google and some other forums. My grandfather has a 1947 1 ton stake bed truck he said i can have. truck hasnt ran since the early 70s and is just sitting behind his barn. Being in Alberta where it sees no salt the body is actually in very good condition. As it sits now it weighs in at a hefty 4200+ pounds and its 224 inches long bumper to bumper with the wheel base being 137 inches (according to some chevrolet file i found online) seems about what people hav been telling me too. Now the question i have is, is there any way to make this truck handle like a sports car and not like a stake bed. I know there is a ton of aftermarket parts for the half ton trucks. I dont expect this truck to be able to handle like a properly set up half ton truck. I just want to be able to go out and have some fun with it. I am sure a lot of the weight is in the chassis. If i modernize all the suspension (ifs up front and 4 link in the rear) and cut out all the old heavy suspension will that be a good enough diet for this thing to be a little more nimble? has anyone ever attempted something like this? If it wasnt my grandfathers truck i would just look for a half ton but since its his id like to keep it how he had it. Not sure if that is possible.

(no pictures yet - trying to get truck from canada to illinois)

[srh3trinity]

Some people do s10 chassis swaps underneath those old trucks. Lots of bolt ons available and you could do an ls or SBC swap.

[bwilde86]

Will that bring the weight down? I was planning to put a lq4 with a tr6060. I just want to know if there is a way to make these things handle well. Or if it's a lost cause...

[kevs79]

There was a 1950 ish Chevy in the the Good Guys. I saw some pictures of it on here.

[70chevellemalibu]

if that was me i would turn it into a new school 1 ton truck, it would make a great tow rig for your future "sports car"

I would restore the body to stock, i would swap in a 8.1L with the allison, 4 wheel disk brakes, air conditioning.

Or just do the frame swap...

[66larkgs]

I am doing something very similar and have already done a 53 international on a s10 chassis with a 406 sbc. used a 8.8 ford axle and shortend the long side to the same length of the short side. redrilled axles/disc brakes to a 5x4.75. it all depends what you are looking for. I thought about any 2500 truck chassis 2wd and going from their. what are the goals of the truck? I Bought a 2008 6.0 and a 4l80e and going to keep it fuel injected. looking to put a modern dually axle under it and a front clip from either a 2500 or a 3500. what ever I can get a deal on. I am looking to have it as my tow rig. the wife is already calling dibs to drive it to the shows. Make a plan for your use of it and go from their. A lot of those 1 tons use the same cabs as 1/2 tons and you can use the 1/2 ton fenders on them to close up the wheel well. their is not a lot of info out their but tons of knowledge on this board. I say get that truck to your place and start to tear it down and make a plan.

[bwilde86]

I wanted to keep it more performance based. But the 2500 vans tend to sell cheap and the wheel base is only 2 inches shorter. So I can probably make that work. They come with the lq4 and 4l80e and better suspension. Still won't handle how I wish it would but would still be a cool truck. Maybe add a bigger cam and work the heads a little to give it some more seat of the pants enjoyment.

[David Pozzi]

For what it's worth. A friend swapped a van chassis under "Grandpa's old truck" to modernize it. Didn't like the result due to the steering column mods/angles he had to do to make the van chassis fit. It was a Ford truck on a Ford Van chassis. He said he should have used a pickup chassis.

This is our 1947 1 ton flat bed truck. My family had it since new, just sold it a few years ago, still ran great! It had a browning 3 speed overdrive & the frame had reinforcing plates just behind the cab.
Before selling it, I looked it over to see if I wanted to buy it and do something with it. The cab is cramped and noisy, not very comfortable. I drove this truck a lot as a young man, hauling strawberries to town and moving farm equipment. We kept it inside nearly every night so it had no rust except for the windshield frame. The brakes were scary bad!
David

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[David Pozzi]

Here's a neighbors truck we sold for them. Very similar to our 47 truck but it was much older. I think it was built in the late 30's
They used it to haul hay for their Dairy. We mounted a 500 gal diesel tank on it and tow bar to make a portable fuel tank out of it. Neighbor kids broke the glass out and forced the doors forward bending the hinges. Note the turn signal arm on the side!
Note the flat plates to reinforce the frame rails.

[David Pozzi]

Burma Jeep we sold. Ford 6 cyl, really high effort steering. It had a big bumper with huge PTO driven winch on it but we cut that off and sold it separately. I came across it while searching for the Chevy truck photos & thought I'd post it. Nobody on the farm seemed to care about these old trucks except me. Goodby memories!

Sorry for the distraction.

[srh3trinity]

If you wanted to do something totally different, you could do a diesel swap and z the frame with bags. Would make a cool hauler.

[bwilde86]

Looks like my brother will be taking the stake bed and I will keep looking for a 55-57 1/2 ton. Thanks to the replies though!